The Right Questions
by TalksToSelf
Summary: He didn't like the answer... but only because he'd asked the wrong questions. Implied 104 spoilers for 160


A/n: Hitsuzen and Yuko are a bad combo

**_The Right Questions_**

They sip their tea like this is any other conversation, any other meeting, any usual occurrence between two people… but it is not. It is far from that. Doumeki only seeks an audience with Yuko alone when matters are serious. She leans forward a little, and pushes the plate of freshly baked crème rolls towards him. He stares at the momentarily. Watanuki made them. He takes one and chews on it, cream splattering undignified onto his school shirt: the first sign he's not feeling quite himself at present.  
"It's about that egg." He says eventually, and the raven haired witch says nothing, ruby eyes continuing to stare at him over the rim of her teacup. "He's going to die isn't he." Doumeki can barely believe the words tumbled out of his mouth so easily. She hesitates, placing her cup back on its saucer.  
"Yes. Watanuki will die." She whispered, calmly, before pouring herself another cup..  
"Then why… why was I needed?" He found himself angry, he is not one to get emotional easily, but lately has found himself losing out to protective feelings, giving in to passion and speaking when he should not. "If you knew he was going to die all along… why have I been enlisted to save him every time he gets into danger?"  
"Nobody enlisted you, I believe you choose to protect him to the very best of your abilities I might add."

Doumeki glowers at the floor. He could not argue with Hitsuzen. If Watanuki was going to die… then he could do nothing to stop it. He could only carry on… with the burdensome knowledge that he would lose him. He imagines briefly that Yuko must have to live with that kind of knowledge… and how it would crush him if he had to know all the time.  
"When it comes…" Doumeki says, feeling an ultimate sense of foreboding… because if he says this it makes it true. "When it comes…" He repeats, clenching his fist and trying to ignore the hot sensation behind his eyes. "I won't let him be alone." His voice barely a whisper, he cannot offer any more than that.  
"That's an interesting wish…" Yuko muses.  
"It's not a wish… it's a promise." The young boy swears. He's made a pact now, he's said it out loud. He will not let Watanuki die alone. Never.  
"Is that so?" The witch smiles almost wickedly, as though she knows something Doumeki doesn't, and he hears the growl in his throat before he feels it.  
"If you intend to stop me…"  
"I have no such intention." She swears, placing her hand on her bosom, today barely covered in rich red silks and satins. "However… I wouldn't say such things. After all… it's not polite to make promises one cannot guarantee they'll keep." That gets him.

She's telling him, in no uncertain terms, that he will not be with Watanuki when he passes. And that hurts. That hurts in so many more ways than grabbing knifes or stepping in front of spirits… it hurts because it scares him. How can he not be able to? What on earth could keep him?  
"You're wrong!" He seethes eventually. It is not like him to get so angry, not at all… but the situation calls for it. One fist clenched, the other gripping the table to try calm himself. "You're wrong Yuko-san." He hisses, more in hope than defiance. "You've… been wrong before, right?"  
"Doumeki-kun… do you think I've ever been wrong?" She asks, a small smirk on her lips as she moves her cup about 3 feet across the table, aswell as the kettle. And he can't take anymore. She's too calm about this. Does she feel nothing? Even he, who Watanuki is somehow convinced has ice in his veins, even he is getting heated up over this. He stands up abruptly, and… though seemingly out of character and slightly unusual behaviour, sends the table flying as he does so.

He realises, as the sound of the table falling dies down, that she predicted it. The coffee cup and kettle she'd just moved, had they been in their original places would have scalded her, instead just left a stain on the carpeted floors. She's right. Yuko is always right. Furious, hopeless, and helpless, Doumeki leaves without an apology.

Yuko smiles.  
"Humans are such curious creatures." She muses, sprawling herself out onto the carpet, sideways so as to evade the tea spillage. "They always want answers… and in Doumeki-kun's case I am more than willing to provide… yet they always ask the wrong ones. 'Is he going to die?' the answer is so obvious. Everyone dies." She yawns, still smiling to herself, and kicking her bare feet in the air, allowing her long flowy dress to expose most of her legs like a child who doesn't know dignity. "And unfortunately as it may seem he will die without Doumeki-kun. Now if he'd just asked when? That would've been an entirely different story."

Because only Yuko knows, that with that promise made, Doumeki won't leave Watanuki's side.  
"85 and widowed, Doumeki Kimihiro will pass peacefully in his sleep on October the 31st … the day after his husband did the same." She spreads herself languidly, fingertips scraping the carpeted floors when Watanuki himself comes in.  
"Sorry I missed that did you say something?" He asks, carrying a tray laden with delicious goodies.  
"Yes…" Then there are some humans who always ask questions you might not want to answer. "Ooh! Gimme gimme gimme!" Yuko cheers, practically leaping up, diverting the subject. He sighed surveying the mess.  
"Do I want to know what happened to the table?"  
"No."

She'll leave it to Hitsuzen.  
For now.

A/n: There's a rather ominous feeling about chapter 160... So I made it cheery. Heh.


End file.
